How to automatically put your latest beats on your iPhone with Hazel, HomeBrew and Automator

I make a ton of beats in Ableton Live, and I often want to listen to my latest ideas or mixes when I am away from my computer. With this (complicated as f*ck) workflow, I always have a playlist with my latest music converted to MP3 on my phone. It’s not simple, and I don’t offer any support or help if you mess up anything on your machine, use at your own risk!

First of all, I have one project in Ableton Live for ideas for each year. Yup! I do this so that Live always renders/exports to the same folder. Of course, if the ideas go beyond being just an idea, I make a new project for that ‘album’.

So you know how to render/export in Live, and now you need to pick a folder to export to. I have one called ‘AA Beats MP3’

Now I use a program called Hazel and Apple’s Automator to do some work for me. I set Hazel to the right folder, and it automatically does a few tasks.

Deletes .asd files (which are useful at times, but I don’t want them in this folder, ad this allows me to just leave the option on).

Converts the .aif to MP3 using an Automator workflow

Move’s the new .MP3 into a subfolder to keep things tidy

Delete’s the .Aif

Adds the .MP3 to a playlist, which is automatically synced to my iPhone.